OBAMA + DEBT = BIAS?

WASHINGTON - Congressional Black Caucus member Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas suggested to members of Congress that President Obama is being treated unfairly in debt negotiations because of his race.

As Jackson and many members of the Black community see it, Republican’s reluctance to raise the debt ceiling when it has been raised numerous times for other presidents shows the unwarranted flack Obama is receiving.

From the floor of the House of Representatives, Jackson Lee said:

“I do not understand what I think is the maligning and maliciousness [toward] this president. Why is he different?…In the minority community, that is the question that is being raised. Why is this president being treated so disrespectfully? Why has the debt limit been raised 60 times? Why did the leader of the Senate continually talk about his job is to bring the president down to make sure he is unelected?….I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president — only this one, only this one — has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work, only this one…. Read between the lines. What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?”

Earlier in her speech, Jackson Lee said Obama has been targeted unlike any other president.

"I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president — only this one, only this one — has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work, only this one," said Jackson Lee from the House floor.

"Read between the lines," she continued. "What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment of when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?"

Jackson Lee concluded by saying that she hoped someone would step up and say that what appears obvious to her is not in fact true.

"I hope someone will say that what it appears to be is not in fact accurate," said Lee. "But historically it seems to be nothing more."

Jackson Lee finished by saying that she hopes her eyes are wrong — that she hopes the President is not being treated differently because of the color of his skin.